Live Magazine Christmas 2016 ISSUE Live Magazine December 2016 Issue | Page 66

YOUR SAY
local
artist

INTERVIEW WITH ARTIST

TY HANSON
Millennium Exile is an Australian
based project by Ty Hanson. Working with artists from around the
world, Ty plans for his title to one
day become a Japanese Anime. Ty,
how did you get started in art? Who
inspired you to begin?
I have always been drawing for as
long as I can remember and I grew
up watching Anime such as Astroboy, Mazinger Z, Macross and
Tekkaman Blade. However at the
age of 11 my mother passed away
from cancer. I never had many
friends growing up and I was bullied
rather severely.
Anime was an ‘escape’ for me back
then. I was so fascinated with the
art style and the stories that were
being told.....I found Anime so much
deeper than a cat chasing a mouse,
or a rabbit messing with a duck for
30 minutes. I guess you could say
that when things got darkest for
me, it was my passion for Anime
that quite literally saved my life.
As I grew older, my passion for Anime turned into a great respect and
I wanted to be a part of the industry
that saved me - to be able to entertain and fascinate others the way I
had been. In 2008 I decided to start
writing my own story which actually
started from a simple character design assignment.

Many, many Anime have inspired
me along the way.
Titles such as Cowboy Bebop,
Evangelion, Soul Eater and Full Metal Alchemist were always among
the most watched on my Television,
however it was Gainax’s “Tengen
Toppa Gurren Lagann” that really
changed my perspective.
Gurren Lagann’s story was so bizarre and insane, yet it gripped my
imagination with both hands and
made me feel as though a fire was
burning within my chest.
It quite literally made me realise
that no matter what the premise,
any story can be made if it is well
written.
While my story is certainly no Gurren Lagann, it was definitely my biggest inspiration and I would consider myself one of the shows biggest
fans.
What tools do you use to create?
Is it digital or do you use paper and
inks or paints?
I use pencil on paper sketching and
then transfer everything into Photoshop where it is re-drawn.
That being said however, most of
the art you see here is from artists
from around the world who I have
commissioned to draw my designs.

While I am a pretty decent artist,
there are those in the world who
make my work look like a fifth graders.
In order to get noticed, I needed to
start taking the project more seriously and decided to start hiring
and paying artists to draw for me.
Back in 2009 I reached out to a
young Indonesian artist named
Hary Istiyoso who was not only my
first artist but is still drawing with me
today and has embarked upon this
long journey with me with such enthusiasm and loyalty.
From there I started contacting other amazingly talented artists, from
freelancers to artists who work in
the gaming industry for some rather
large companies.